Roger Baker

In a new series on ConservativeHome, we will be profiling groups within the Conservative Party that focus on specific issues or the involvement of particular sections of society. This occasional series kicks off with a contribution from Roger Baker of the Conservative Animal Welfare Group. If you would like your group to be profiled please email Tim.

Roger has spent his working life as a Veterinary Surgeon in Whitstable after education at Kent College, Canterbury and the Royal Veterinary College. He is joint Chairman of the CAWG.

Political angels often fear to tread along the pathway of animal welfare. However it is a political issue that has a significant bearing on the voting intentions of well over one million voters in the UK (according to the last poll that surveyed the issue (in 1997)). The issues in conflict are usually the defining of “animal welfare” and “animal rights” but there is a very great distinction, they are not attitudes or stances that should be confused.

The Conservative Animal Welfare Group has a history reaching back over a decade of putting a political slant onto animal welfare but equally making a clear distinction between animal welfare and animal rights. The parallels between how a society relates with other species and how it relates to its individual members has been acknowledged by philosophers for over two thousand years. We can see in various societies around the world these parallels and how these parallels are dictated by culture and religions as well as the societies themselves.

In the UK we have a society of diverse cultures but politically we need to build a society built on a framework of respect for others, acknowledgement of the views of others and above all we need to build a society which cares for others. A significant strand of this has to be that within our society we also have respect and appreciation of other species.

This does not bestow on animals any rights but it does demand from us responsibilities. These responsibilities are to treat other species with respect, to prevent suffering and to recognise that animals are sentient.

The Conservative Party has historically held the moral high ground with the initial Protection of Animals Act 1911 being brought to the statute book by the Liberal Prime Minister Herbert Asquith it has essentially been the Conservative Administrations from Law (1922-1923) to Major (1990-1997) that have overseen the evolution of animal welfare legislation designed to reflect a developing morality in the way we treat other species.